Hedonism

Since her wife’s death, Ruby Walsh has buried herself in corporate work and allowed her Las Vegas home to become a monument to a life she can no longer share. A complaint about her neighbor’s music brings her into contact with Athena Stavros, a casino operator whose commanding public presence conceals an exclusive private world. Athena is accustomed to controlling the terms of intimacy; Ruby has avoided intimacy altogether. Their attraction unsettles both arrangements, drawing them toward desires that cannot be handled like a business negotiation. In a city where power and indulgence are readily available, the more difficult prospect is emotional exposure. Each woman must consider what she might surrender by allowing the other past her defenses.